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History of Odell
The History of Odell, Oregon
by Stuart of GorgeConnection.com
In 1844, Peter Neal and Jerome Winchell first passed through the Odell Area. In 1860, they settled there permanently. William S. Odell and Dave Turner came from California and settled in the area in 1861. Odell married Neal’s daughter that same year and they had a child, Milton, who was the first white child born in Hood River County. All of the area South and East of the Hood River, which included Odell, Pine Grove, Dethman Ridge, Dukes Valley, and Willow Flat was originally known as the Odell Area.
It was at the intersection of Tucker Road and Summit Drive where the original site of the Odell Village or Business Area stood. Within a few hundred feet of the stone store intersection were the first store, blacksmith shop, church, lodge, and school. Huge fir, pine, and oak trees surrounded the area. Travel through this portion of Hood River Valley was not easy. One had to follow animal trails, old Indian paths, or make a new path through the dense underbrush. There was, however, an open area consisting of a grassy field where the Diamond Central Fruit facility now sits that was referred to as an old salt lick used by wild animals. Some thought it to have been an old lake bottom.
One interesting account written about by Arleen Winchell Moore tells of the Odell Flat, which was covered with huge old yellow pine trees. When early settlers arrived, they found a rectangular area which puzzled them. Within the rectangular area were trees which appeared to have had the lower limbs removed up to a height of about 20 feet. Some thought that fir trappers cut the limbs but it became apparent that the limbs had been cut long before fir trappers arrived. The fir trappers were in the area about 30 years before the settlers arrived. Harry Kemp, son of an early day settler decided to investigate the reason for the limb removal. He asked the local Indians in the area what they knew about it. At first, most of the Indians did not want to say anything about it, however one did mention that for as long as Indians had lived in the Hood River Valley, the rectangular area had been used as a gathering place in the fall of each year. One year, estimated to be about 100 years before the coming of white men, an early hard winter had arrived. During this winter, the deer had starved, the bears were hidden away, and the Indians were unable to find food. In order to feed themselves, the Indians resorted to cutting the limbs from the trees and making a soup from the tender buds and moss. When Kemp doubted the story he was being told, the Indian replied that if he was as hungry as they were, even buds and moss soup is good food.
Many other families arrived between 1864 and 1888. Henry Straight operated a post office from his log home in 1888. From October 19, 1888 to November 18, 1891, the post office was open. It became known as the Straightenburg Post Office. The Tucker Post Office operated after that but closed in June, 1900. Apparently, there was no post office in the area between 1900 and 1910 when the Newton Post Office opened in the New-Town site. On March 11, 1911, the name was changed to the Odell Post Office and the name has remained unchanged since that time.
By 1900, growth was rapid in Odell with many settlers moving in and buying land from the early homesteaders who had first arrived since the 1860s. Those who arrived prior to 1900 are considered the true pioneers of Odell while those arriving after 1900 had to buy land since all the homesteads had been taken.
Electricity became available in Odell in the early 1900s and most residents obtained their source of water from wells or from many of the creeks in the area. The first domestic water system was installed by Aubrey Davis in 1923. Roads, however, were still dirt or gravel and were virtually impassable at lower parts of town during parts of the winter and spring.
The first church built in Odell was the Odell Union Church which was constructed in 1902. School houses were used to conduct Sunday services prior to that time. Development of Odell was rapid as more people moved to the area and by 1905 there were about 5,000 people living in the Hood River Valley. More and better roads were built, orchards had been planted, and in 1908, Hood River became a county separating it from Wasco County.
